Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I attempt a reading of the fragmentary and mainly incoherent prose of "Manhattan Suicide Addict", taking into consideration the difference of the expressive means of prose in regard with the others used by Kusama, and trying to focus on the representation of her own artistic persona.

Paper long abstract:

The third paper proposed for the "One thousand visions of self. Kusama Yayoi through art and literature" panel is based on the artist’s literary production. It focuses in particular on the first novel, a pseudo-autobiographical work that recalls her years in New York, Manhattan jisatsu-misui-jōshūhan マンハッタン自殺未遂常習犯 (Manhattan Suicide Addict, 1978). While there are a few but quite significant studies (Munroe 1998, Hayashi 2007, Würrer 2017) dedicated to later works of fiction such as Kurisutofā danshō kutsu クリストファー男娼窟 (The Hustler’s Grotto of Christopher Street,1984), Manhattan Suicide Addict, the starting point of her career as a professional writer, has not been given enough attention by the academia.

Notably, her art and literature have many stylistic and thematic common points, such as repetition and obsessive themes (Munroe 1998) or the stress on dichotomic aspects of reality (Pachciarek 2014). Nevertheless, Kusama declares that through writing she was able to “shed light on a different facet” of herself, one that she “could not reach with plastic art” (Kusama 2011:207). In this paper, I will attempt a reading of the fragmentary and mainly incoherent prose of Manhattan Suicide Addict, taking into consideration the difference of the expressive means of prose in regard with the others used by Kusama, and trying to focus on the representation of her own artistic persona. Putting it into comparison with others, I will try to reflect on the value of Kusama’s first work of fiction, which she compulsively completed in less than one month. By doing this, I aim at enriching the larger reflection not only on the artist’s literary works, but also on the artist’s vision of herself emerging through her own art and literature.